Osaka's (A Sort of Dining Review)

There is a brand new hibachi place that just opened near our house named Osaka's. Tim's dad has been watching it for weeks, waiting for it to open so we could make a reservation. As soon as we saw cars in the parking lot we called him and we finally found a Saturday when we were able to meet up and try it out.

If you ever decide to eat there I recommend making your reservation for about 30 minutes before you really plan on sitting down. It's not like a normal restaurant where you walk in at 6:30 and have a table...you're just on the top of the list. It wasn't an awful wait and I'm sure they are crazy because they are new, but Brenden got a little anxious in the tiny area in front of the door. Thank goodness for emergency crackers in the diaper bag!

Eventually we sat down and it was apparent that our waiter was either pressed for time because they were short staffed or he was just overwhelmed by what was expected of him. You know those nice, hot towels you usually get at these places? Yeah...we watched the other tables get them. I'm not sure if anyone in the place got the tea that the menu said was included with our meal but I missed it. I love that tea. And after sitting at the table for 30 minutes waiting to either see a chef or our drinks I could tell Tim's dad was getting annoyed. Brenden was, too! He wanted his rice and he wanted it soon!

Finally we were served our salad and miso soup. Much to my surprise, Brenden LOVED the soup. I thought for sure he would take one sip and spit it out, but he begged for his own bowl. I don't think it's Connie's favorite part of the meal so she shared most of her's with him. After every sip he would say "Mmmm!" or "So good!" We may have to incorporate miso soup into his diet!

When our chef did show up he was worth the wait. We got Brenden a bowl of the steamed rice (they were out of it so they actually just gave him plain rice with pepper or something, not sure how that is different...he didn't care) but the chef kept slipping Brenden little pieces of veggies, which he loved. The chef even tried to give him shrimp but we had to say no thank you. I have no idea if Brenden is allergic to seafood, like Tim is to cod, but I didn't think a busy restaurant was the place to try it.

Brenden's absolute favorite thing was the FIRE. We had seen a ton of the tables enjoying the pyrotechnic displays so he was ready when the guy brought out the matches. He was so excited that he was shaking, which is usually reserved for things like ice cream or playing a new game on the Wii. He also really enjoyed the onion volcano, which we had hyped up for awhile. "Fire! Fire!" he kept squealing. It cracked us up! Although I may need to worry about a small fascination with fire later on.

We all enjoyed a great dinner. Tim, Mike and I all had steak and shrimp and Connie had steak and chicken, with Brenden sharing steak and chicken from our plates. I'm not sure if he would have eaten the meat if the chef hadn't slipped him a few pieces first,but after that he couldn't get enough. I told that guy we were dragging him to our house to serve our son every meal since it seems like he'd eat anything that the chef put on his plate. He even dipped his steak and chicken in the soy sauce because the chef gave him some.

One of the best moments was right before we were about to leave. The other side of the table was filled with a group of young adults who, thankfully, thought Brenden was a pretty cool kid. (We're convinced he's a cool kid...but that's not always how other people see him, especially since they were all unmarried and didn't have kiddos of their own.) Like any other hibachi restaurant, the chefs are usually talented and have a few jokes up their sleeves. (butter fly = throwing butter in the air onto a dish...stuff like that) One of the things they do at this place is fling a shrimp tail at the table behind them. Tim had warned everyone at our table that we should all watch out for flying shrimp since the guy across from us was cutting them up. Not 30 seconds later a shrimp tail went flying through the air...right into the beer of the guy next to Tim. Obviously this was an excellent shot and we all cheered, and then we realized that the owner of the beer was in the bathroom at the time so he had no idea it was now shrimp flavored. When he returned his friends made a couple of snide remarks to get him to drink up and when he finally realized what was going on he thought it was hilarious. The poor chef looked nervous! Not sure how much they are paid but I'm sure having to pay for a customer's beer just looks bad.

Most of us finished off the night with chocolate ice cream, Tim opted for mango, which just made Brenden's entire day. He really did super duper well at the table. He was well behaved, had a great time watching the chef work, and flirted like crazy with the 2 girls across the table from him. We all left stuffed and happy, even with the things we had to do without.

My rating...3.5 stars out of 5. We'll definitely be back, but we'll definitely be making our reservation a little differently.